Surfing Waves

I've finally gotten really comfortable on my longboard now I want to figure out how to go faster. I went longboarding today and I tried doing it. Once I caught the wave, I would turn to the top and then ride down, and then turn to the top again, and ride down, and just keep doing that. I'm not really sure whether it really worked or not. Is that the correct way to go faster? If not how am I supposed to?

Im not a longboarder but one thing i notice a lot of people doing is that upon reaching the top some people linger to long or down initiate the turn back down this time lapse means you are nulling all the moment you created from the first climb. Not sure if i have explained tthis right

you are on the right track with the up and down thinking.....key is that it is not a mechanical action, it must flow with the wave. You need to build a synergy that is working with the wave not fighting it. Flow, timing, reading the coming section, and not forcing it. The speed will come soon.

parry, you used the "s" word ("synergy"). Are you a corporate manager involved in aquisitions and mergers? Whenever I hear the word synergy, I think about the incapable corporate officers that went on a buying spree and ruined a once prosperous, 7,000 employee engineering firm in the US. These clowns would tell us they were buying everything in site in order to capitalize on synergy. Ha, they couldn't even spell the word.

nope...just like some word more than others...as for spelling, if it weren't for the little red lines my posts may be barely able to be read. as for employment.....I run a small window and door company in so cal...keeps the wife home and the kids fed.

The 's' word is actually 'synergistic.' You can't go changing paradigms like that willy-nilly.

Parry is right - once you get the feel of the flow of the wave, you know when to move up and feel when you're starting to slow a bit, or the wave is pushing up behind you and you show slide down the face to generate more speed.

Sounds like the board is holding you back.

.

RoyStewart wrote:Sounds like the board is holding you back.

.

Huh?

Yeah you need an 'efficient waveriding machine' or something....

:shakeshead:

Well it's hard to know without seeing the board, however a board which has all the foil elements optimised will naturally react to most rider movement by going faster.

So long as the rider movement isn't to stand on the tail of the board or fall over.
Just to qualify Roy's statement.

In which case, the rider is providing negative incentive to the board to accelerate properly along its plane of resistance.

I just joined and this one caught my eye because I only just, last weekend, got the hang of turning down the face and accelarating, then making a strong bottom turn back up. I must've spent years just cruising along the face making really slow turns to stay on the wave, and shuffling forward to trim a bit and get some speed.

The funny thing is I just got the hang of cross stepping a few weeks ago as well. So now when I take off I'm not sure when to stay back and try to make some strong turns and when to move forward to a better trim. I was thinking maybe Id make some turns when its steep then trim when it fattens out, but is that on the mark at all

not that it matters really, I'm having a good time workin it out

Funny, but this past weekend too, on a lucky catch of a fat face breaking at just the right speed, i naturally do the s-curve weaving up-and-down in tiny increments to stay in sync with the varying speed of the breaking curl behind me. This happened when i decided consciously not to look at my feet anymore, but keeping my eyes laser-locked on the shoulder a bit further ahead where i'm heading. It's just the best feeling ever! On the other hand, when i try to repeat the experience the next time, i almost slice over some guy paddling out until he gave me a quick whistle. Laser-lock focus on the wave-only can be dangerous to other surfers.

I like Roy's point about how eventually the surfer will just let the board do its thing. The rider will just be there for super fine , subconscious adjustments. This is what i get out of Roy's comments.

Yes matt2000 it can damage your board hitting a speed bump but the onus is on them to get out of your way!